2013 Sees Record $86 Bln In Bond-Fund Withdrawals

By Michael Aneiro

Investors withdrew a record $86 billion from U.S. bond mutual funds and exchange-traded funds during 2013, TrimTabs Investment Research said today. It was the first net outflow for bond funds since 2004 and easily topped the previous single-year record redemption of $62 billion set in 1994, the last big losing year for bonds.

“Bond funds have suffered seven consecutive months of redemptions for the first time since late 1999 and early 2000,” said TrimTabs CEO David Santschi in a statement. “Nevertheless, the outflow of $196 billion in the past seven months reverses just a fraction of the inflow of $1.20 trillion from 2009 through 2012.”

Stock funds, naturally, had a much better year, taking in $352 billion of net inflows in 2013, beating the previous record inflow of $324 billion set back in 2000, during the twilight of the dot-com boom.